This is probably my favorite book out of all of Jennie Hansen's. It is set in the Manti/Ephraim area, where I lived until I moved last year. I enjoyed being able to see the area where the book was taking place while I read it. It is a believable story and I loved the characters.
This was a book that I started years ago but only got about 20 pages in and never got around to finishing... until this past month. Overall, it is a very charming novel with a lot of relatable yet dramatic concepts. The book's main setting occurs in the Sanpete Valley of Utah, which is a very special place for my family, so I attached myself to this book in that aspect. Playing off of the Utah location, Jennie Hansen incorporates prominent themes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and makes that one of the leading conflicts for the main character, Jacey Matthews. After just having read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the cancer element is also prevalent in this book as well, frightening characters like George--the romantic interest--because Jacey hides her cancer from the folks she's not well-acquainted with (meaning everyone else besides close family). The book is written from an omniscient point of view, which I both like and dislike; I enjoy it because I can understand all of the characters thoughts and feelings deeper than the dialogue, but I find it frustrating as well because I can identify easy solutions to conflicts that the characters can't see, like the tension between Jacey and George for most of the book. This will be one of the few books that I'll rate less than five stars, four out of five, just because it didn't feel as gripping as it could have been in some parts. I recommend this book to fans of sappy romance novels, especially those of the faith-based variety.
this is about a lady that had lived her life under the total control of her parents and didn't live or do anything that she wanted. Her family lived under fear of losing her and totally controlled her. She decides to take her life into her hands and start new.
I had a difficult time liking the main character of this book largely because her dependence is so 19th-century in a 21st-century world. You almost picture this woman in some dark-ages society where little thought or backbone is required to live if you're female. Jacey so personifies the concept of the "weaker sex" here that my impatience was only slightly assuaged by her evolutions as the book progressed.
She has had thyroid cancer, and because of a family history of debilitating illness, her family and the man to whom she is engaged over protect her to the most ridiculous degrees. I'm pretty sure I knew blind kids growing up whose nut job over-protective parents gave them more freedom than Jacey had.
As a child, her flamboyant Uncle Charley had positively influenced her in so many ways. But the family didn't like the fact that he had left behind the eastern-establishment big-money life for a small Utah ranch, adopting a new (and to the family controversial) faith in the bargain. On the one summer when Jacey was permitted to visit her uncle, he influenced her profoundly, introducing her to his faith and instilling in her a love for the west that serious disease and a socialite life back in Baltimore could never quite kill. So ill had she been that she couldn't visit her uncle even when he was dying.
With some help from her sister, Jacey goes to Utah where the small ranch is located, determined to take up residency in the place until she can decide what to do with the property.
She hasn't been in the area more than five minutes when she encounters her well-built specimen of a neighbor in a most unorthodox way. From there, the romance builds, replete with its share of misunderstandings and almost-doesn't-happen twists and turns.
Try to understand that my low rating of this book isn't about the author's ability to write. None of her dialogue is stilted or out of place, and she is talented indeed when it comes to bringing places and geographic features into the book, almost making them characters themselves. I just found myself a bit impatient with the main character.
To her credit, the author doesn't get overly preachy here. She delivers an uplifting message in a positive way that enhances rather than interferes with the story.
I started reading this about 10 pm last night and ended about 1 am. This morning I remember...hmm...that I liked the story, although initially I thought it was set in some earlier time period because of how smothered and pampered the main character was (although there were no computers or cell phones in the story so still an older setting than "today"). It was nice that the main character showed some self-awareness and took steps to grow up. However, despite the reasons for her EXTREMELY doormat life, I thought it was excessive for someone who had attended 4 years of college, student taught, etc. I think it might have been more believable if she had been 18, but then the rest of her "awakening" would have seemed implausible. I am having trouble rating this, probably because I need more sleep. Once again, I started this book with low expectations and this exceeded them. Maybe the boring cover conveyed no promise of things to come? Maybe I have had mixed responses to some of this author's books? Hence the wariness in the expectation department? Perhaps this is a 3.5, rounded up to 4.
This is one of my favorite Jennie Hansen books. She brings a unique tale to life and has the reader feeling the emotions caused by so many trialas and frustrations of life. This is a tale of a young woman filled with a feeling of hopelessness and doubt until a fresh start is made available through the death of her beloved uncle that allows her to begin again in a new place.
I really enjoyed this clean romance about a young woman who had cancer and how she had let her parents, sister, and fiance run her life and make her decisions for her. Of course, she eventually learned to stand on her own feet and that she really didn't love her bossy fiance, but did love the turkey farmer next door. I would recommend the book.
I wanted to give this book 4 stars because I wouldn't mind reading it again even though it was a little cheesy at times. What I didn't like is that the time this book takes place was really confusing. The first chapter seemed like a different era than the rest of the book. Even though it was unrealistic, the love story was super cute!
I almost always have a hard time when a character had to go back to their origins in order to overcome their struggles, but this is a little more understandable. Blegh, always the miscommunication! I loved his sister though... sort of!
I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite, but it was a good read. I liked Jacey Matthews and George a lot. Jacey has been too sheltered her entire life, and I liked seeing her stand up for herself.
Enjoyed the book. It kept my interest and even made me laugh at times. George and Jacey seemed like real people and it was easy to imagine them in their settings. Loved the turkey watch dog!
A very sweet romance with the young spoiled rich girl raised in Baltimore that decide she wants to be her own person she leave Baltimore to a small ranch her uncle left her in ephraim utah